In GXT 1.x http://extjs.com/explorer/#columnform shows widgets arranged in a column with a following widget in a text area.

There is too much padding/space between the text area and the widgets in the column layout - such that it looks a little odd when you have certain arrangements of formlayouts joined together in a panel (column or not)...

The same style of Column Form in ExtJS does not have this extra space (see Form3 in http://extjs.com/deploy/dev/examples/form/dynamic.html).

Problem might be due to the default padding and possible workarounds could probably muck around with padding space etc... not sure though??